mojosmom

I've had a very nice few days in Cleveland with my sister:


I got there Wednesday, in the late afternoon, and we just hung out at her place. On Thursday, she went to work and I wandered out to visit some shops in the neighborhood. In the evening, we went out for Thai food and then to hear some jazz - very traditional - and watch some old film clips of jazz musicians. Friday, it rained, so other than a brief foray to a nearby antique store, I lazed about drinking tea, reading and petting the cats. We went to some gallery openings in the evening, included three shows at the Morgan Art of Papermaking Conservatory and Educational Foundation:


Saturday and Sunday we were busy bees. We started out with a tour of Cleveland's Playhouse Square, five theatres built in the '20s and now restored to their former glory. Due to the fact that there were productions in the bigger ones, we weren't able to go backstage, but that was okay. The volunteer who led the tour was extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic, and had a lot of good stories. And the theatres were gorgeous:


From there, we went to Loganberry Books, not to buy books, but to eat them! Yes, they were having their Edible Books Tea!

There were some amusing and delicious entries. It was interesting that the entries here were almost entirely inspired by, and representing, a particular book, whereas the entries at the Center for Book and Paper Arts (where I usually go for the Edible Books Tea) are generally more inspired by the book as structure.

After a bit of dinner and then a bit of a rest, we headed out again to a concert of show tunes by the North Coast Men's Chorus. These guys were awesome! As Stacey puts it, "it wasn't just a bunch of guys on risers". They had some great soloists, a small group called the "Coastliners", dancers (including at least one potential RuPaul's Drag Race contestant), and they even brought in a couple of women. Surprisingly fun to watch were the sign language interpreters. They didn't merely interpret - they performed, particularly in the "Wicked" medley. The whole event was tremendous fun.

On Sunday, we hied ourselves to the Canton Museum of Art, for the Kimono as Art exhibit. We decided to get there by opening time, and it's a good thing we did, as by the time we got out of the exhibit, the line was practically out the door. Before we actually went to the exhibit, we watched some films they were showing about Japan, as well as one about Itchiku Kubota himself. Before you get to the kimono exhibit, there's another show of ceramics by the Japanese-American ceramicist, Toshiko Takaezu. These were displayed in beds of sand, raked to set off the designs of the pieces. A perfect touch.

On to Kubota. No mob scene here. They limited the number of people in the exhibit, so that it was never so crowded that you could not get near the kimono, which, thankfully, were not under glass. That was important, because the subtlety of these pieces, not merely in the gradations of color, but in the delicacy of design, the use of texture, directionality of the shibori, and the relationship of each piece to the next, was simply astounding. When you realize that Kubota spent literally decades recovering the technique of tsujigahana, a method of combining dyeing, embroidery and ink painting from the 16th-17th century, it becomes even more astonishing.

The exhibit begins with this piece, "San/Burning Sun":

inspired by the sight of the sun setting in Siberia, where Kubota was a prisoner of war. It is followed by pieces depicting Mt. Fuji in different lights, and several others, but the highlight is his Symphony of Light, thirty kimono depicting the passage from autumn to winter, each flowing organically into the next. They are displayed in a "U", so that you can see this. Kubota had intended to create thirty more kimono, representing spring and summer, and then twenty more depicting the oceans and the universe. He died before he could accomplish this, but his studio, run now by his sons, is carrying on.

That was enough for the day, so we went back to Stacey's and relaxed. I packed, and drove home today, skipping my Italian class because it's a six hour drive and I was tired!